In Pursuit of Happiness, Knowing What you Want, Getting What You Need - Chapter One

by E. Perry Good

I absolutely love the Declaration of Independence. There is sacredness to it, a magic of sorts. When E. Perry Good quoted from the Declaration, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.", I knew I was going to enjoy reading further.

It made me immediately think about what I do that is so grand that time just slips by when I am doing it. It makes me remember why I am pursuing this Emergency Management Degree. I want to be in a paid position where I am in that Happiness zone for more and more of my day.

This book is clearly a thought provoker. I haven't yet read anyone else state our basic needs as Love, Power, Fun and Freedom. In many ways it makes sense.

MASLOW

I read Abraham Maslow's, Hierarchy of Needs many years ago and I have always kept that as a frame of reference in the back of my mind. I think it is because it disturbed me at a very basic level to think that very few people would ever reach self-actualization. (Reaching one's full potential as a person.)

I believe that Maslow's Esteem Needs and Social Needs, two of his categories are encapsulated in Good's Love, Power and Fun Needs. Maslow's Safety Needs and Physiological Needs don't seem to fit categorically within Goods.

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE

I was listening to the Coast to Coast AM radio program with George Noory last night and Dr. Bruce Lipton was a guest on his show. In case you want to know more about Bruce, this is his website: http://www.brucelipton.com/. His latest book, The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles talks about our genes and DNA and how they are controlled by signals from outside the cell, including "the energetic messages emanating from our positive and negative thoughts." Science is backing up the thoughts illustrated in Good's book.

During the show, Dr. Lipton spoke about how our human culture has set up a system where competition rules the earth as opposed to cooperation as was intended. Good mentions this same thought at the bottom of page ten. Think about it. If we all cooperate, how much more could be done and how much happier would people be?

Good also states, "You can be your own worst enemy when it comes to limiting yourself."

Oh, this comment rings so true. I have many people say to me, "When do you get the time?" They also say, "I wish I had the time." As far as I know, there are twenty-four hours in the day for everyone. We choose what we want to do with them. We choose how we want to go through the day. We choose how we act and react. I choose, I find the time, I reach. (Then I take power naps)

POWER

I have a friend in need. This friend is also a Master Teacher in the field of energy work, so it feels to me like I am always on the taking end of things. I will have the opportunity to give something back that she could benefit from this coming week, and I feel so very powerful to be able to do it. This is not power as in I am in control of this person or this situation. Nor is it I am better than this person because they are needy and I am not. This is power as in I am able and fortunate to help at this time. Good says we need Power and I believe this. Power can be a great thing if put in proper perspective. Good states this in the Power section, page sixteen. Power is when "You have an impact on other people." This power feeds me and I know exactly what the author is implying.

SIGNALS

The section on Signals in this book reinforces many teachings I have read over the years. I have been following the teachings of Abraham through Jerry and Esther Hicks. One of the thoughts that I believe falls right in line with what Good is saying is this: "Most people think that they only have the option of responding to the circumstances that surround them. And that's what makes them attempt the impossible, which is to control the circumstances around them, which only feeds their feeling of frustration and vulnerability, because it doesn't take very much life experience to discover you can't control all of those circumstances. But you can control your vibration. And when you control your vibration, you've controlled everything that has anything to do with you. --- Abraham Excerpted from the workshop in El Paso, TX on Thursday, March 28, 2002

http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/index.php

Abraham calls these "signals", vibrations. Good further states on page thirty-four that, "Your painful feelings are clues." In recent years, I have found this so fascinating. Look at the potential of this. Instead of people saying I feel lousy about x, y or z, they could instead say "thank you dear friend pain for alerting me to this potential trouble." Then they could take out the proverbial magnifying glass and look inside. The pain is a flag signaling us to take another look. The pain is saying. "Look here, pay attention, something needs to be changed!" I think we look at pain as the enemy instead of the friend that it is.

The section about Positive Signals got me to think about Winnie the Pooh's Eeyore.

Eeyore is a donkey who is pessimistic. We know people like him, don't we? Murphy's Law embodies Eeyore's thought pattern. He doesn't count his blessings, he imagines everything is going to go wrong – and by golly, it usually does, proving his point. If something does work out, well he sees it as a fluke.

"A belief is only a thought you keep thinking", and "That which is like is drawn unto itself" are two of the most basic and well known quotes from the work that Jerry and Esther Hicks have done with Abraham.

CHOICE

I believe we all have choices, and the choices we make bring about consequences. I think we can all learn something from this book, and step one is knowing there are other possibilities that we either haven't been exposed to, we haven't considered, or we need to rediscover.